Lidstrom won’t decide his future for awhile

DETROIT — Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom will do what he has done the last few years, take a few weeks before deciding if he’s ready to comeback for another season of hockey.

“I’ll take my time, having a meeting with Kenny (Holland), an exit meeting like all the players have and go from there,” Lidstrom said Tuesday as the Wings cleaned out their lockers at Joe Louis Arena. “I won’t make a decision soon.

“I won’t put a timetable on it,” Lidstrom added. “I’m sure Kenny would like know before July 1 to see what’s going on. That’s what we did last year.”

Lidstrom will weigh many things when making his decision from motivation to his health and also what he family wants him to do.

“It’s always hard losing in the first round especially since we felt we had a pretty good team going into the playoffs,” Lidstrom said. “We did have a good regular season, but we got hurt and couldn’t get back to playing up to our standards. We did play well at times in the playoffs, but not good enough to beat a good Nashville team. That stinks, but I don’t know if that’ll be part of my decision or not.”

Lidstrom said money won’t be a factor.

“You’re still disappointed losing out so mentally you’re not happy with how things ended,” Lidstrom said. “Physically I feel OK. My ankle was hurting me late in the year and a little bit in the playoffs, but we have good doctors and it really didn’t bother me when we started playing games.

“I’m happy with how I played the first half of the season, I felt I dropped off a little bit in the second half, then I got hurt with 60 games into the year,” Lidstrom added. “I think that slowed me down I bit. I wasn’t where I wanted to be after I got back from that injury.”

He does feel he can play another season.

“I believe so,” he said. “I feel physically I can still play. I can contribute, but you have to be motivated and you have to have the drive and that’s something I will think about.”